The Columbia Connection

In May the local Facebook “foodie” group was abuzz with the news that Red Lobster was closing restaurants in Maryland. The Columbia location was one of them. Financial woes forced the seafood chain to pare down as it went into bankruptcy and looked for a new owner.

I haven’t thought much about it since then. Red Lobster wasn’t in our regular rotation, as they say.

This morning I saw a piece of news that brought it back into my thoughts. This is Damola Adamolekun. He is the new CEo of Red Lobster. He is 35 years old. That in itself is pretty astounding. But wait, there’s more.

Mr. Adamolekun is from Columbia. Yes, this Columbia. He ran track at Wilde Lake High School.

According to a bio published when he was the CEO of P.F. Chang’s, Adamolekun is the son of a neurologist and pharmacist who was born in Nigeria, and raised in Zimbabwe, Amsterdam, Springfield, Ill., and Columbia, Md. He now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Red Lobster's New Leader is a Millennial Wall Street Fave , Chloe Berger, Wall Street Finance

Alas, his connection to Columbia probably won’t have any influence over whether we see a return of our local Red Lobster. I wonder if he has ever eaten there?

I don’t think much of the views he is seen espousing in a TikTok from 2023. “Red Lobster’s CEO doesn’t believe in work/life balance.” The clip, taken from an interview with Fortune, describes work/life balance as a kind of personal choice that may be necessary for some but not for him.

That may be possible if one is at the high end of the hospitality industry where big money decisions are being made. But the people who actually run the restaurants on a daily basis are being eaten alive by excessive work demands and unreasonable expectations, and they don’t have any choice about it. It sounds very much like the opinion of a relatively young man without family responsibilities.

Still, it’s pretty cool to see someone from Columbia in the news. I wish Mr. Adamolekun well and I hope that his involvement in the Red Lobster brand brings about positive change for the people who work there.

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